Depicted as a Space Ranger working under the authority of the Star Command, Buzz was created during a time where astronauts were especially popular amongst children. Because of this, his arrival in the original Toy Story film created conflict with Andy's favorite toy, Sheriff Woody, though this rivalry would eventually blossom into a lifelong friendship. He is also the archenemy of the Evil Emperor Zurg.
Buzz is a toy from a science fiction franchise of the same name. In his fictional backstory, Buzz is a universal space ranger from the Intergalactic Alliance and the captain of the Alliance's team. Buzz is trained in several forms of martial arts and is a highly skilled warrior in hand-to-hand combat. Being in peak physical condition, Buzz makes a perfect space ranger and is an example to many.
Black Friday reel[]
The reel had Buzz largely undergo the same intended role of being knocked out of the window by Woody, with the only real difference being that Woody did so deliberately by tossing him out under the guise of a sportsmanship handshake. It's also implied in his sportsmanship handshake gesture regarding which among them will go to Pizza Planet in this scene that Buzz, unlike the final version, was aware by that point of actually being a toy.
Personality[]
“Woody, we need to figure out what's best for everyone!”
Buzz, like many characters in Toy Story, is a complicated one, who feels genuine emotions such as pride, anger, depression, and sadness, much like a regular human. These are traits that he shares with his best friend, Woody, however, one could say that Buzz is better at keeping his emotions in check than the cowboy. Buzz is known for his bravery and courage with a "by the book" mindset, believing the way people should live their life by following the rules. Though there are rare moments when he will bend the rules or tell a cover story if needed to when he knows it is the right thing to do. Though possessing great leadership qualities, one of Buzz's biggest character flaws at times is that he can be rather unemotional.
Like Woody, Buzz also goes through an evolution throughout the series. In Toy Story, he was incredibly deluded and actually believed that he himself was the real Buzz Lightyear and would not listen when told that he's really a toy modeled off of the character. Because of this, Buzz believed he could do everything that a real space ranger was able to do such as fly and that his "laser" was a deadly weapon when it was actually just a light bulb. Since seeing the truth of his delusion, Buzz has shown a degree of embarrassment of it. In Toy Story 2, while being attacked by another Buzz Lightyear action figure who also thought he was the real Buzz Lightyear, Buzz remarked in a self-conscious and annoyed tone: "tell me I wasn't this deluded."
Buzz can come off as being charismatic and charming, most of Andy's toys completely adored him just after he was unwrapped. Even Andy, whose favorite toy was Sheriff Woody and was completely obsessed with cowboys since kindergarten, went head over heels for Buzz who instantly became his other favorite toy. Buzz also possessed something of a vengeful side, such as attacking Woody when he tried to "terminate" him which was justified by saying "revenge is not something we enforce on my planet. But we're not on my planet, are we?" He is a little bit irrational at times such as attempting to save another toy from being blown up by the neighborhood juvenile delinquent Sid, despite not realizing that he would be destroyed as well but it also shows that he is quite brave as he was willing to rescue a defenseless person even if the odds were stacked against him.
However, his personality changed completely, especially after discovering the truth about himself. At first, he went into a state of manic depression, thinking that he himself was nothing more than "a stupid, plain, insignificant toy", and also developed a bit of a suicidal side. Such moments were when Sid's "cannibal" toys were amassing around him he didn't even look fazed by this. Even when being strapped to an explosive rocket, he didn't seem to remotely care that he might die as he was that depressed. But after being given a motivational speech by a captive Woody, he begins to understand his role as a toy; to bring happiness and joy to their owner. After this, Buzz learns a lot more about honor, friendship, bravery, and selflessness. He is usually seen without his helmet as of Toy Story 2 because he knows he's not a real space ranger and toys do not need space helmets.
By Toy Story 2, Buzz has completely accepted himself as a toy, especially during his encounter with Ultra Buzz makes him realize how deluded he was back in the first film. Woody is one of his closest friends and understands him better than anyone other than the latter's girlfriend, Bo Peep.
Buzz is also slightly clueless to human cultures, such as the case while he was trying to calm Woody down about cowboy camp and accidentally pronounces s'mores as "schmoes," which is corrected by the latter. This was also shown during the first one while looking at Sid, he mistook his pet dog Scud for him. Also in Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation, he mispronounced Hawaii as "Heiweiaii".
Buzz notoriously has a massive crush on Jessie. While Buzz is normally awkward around her in Play mode whilst in Demo mode, he refers to her as a temptress and immune to her "bewitching good looks", but when turned to Spanish mode he becomes passionate, confident, and romantic, openly expressing his love for the cowgirl with romantic poetry and admiration. He showed something of a jealous and showy side when Woody returned and Jessie was only happy to see him alive, Buzz replied "el vaquero/the cowboy" in a jealous tone. While trying to escape Sunnyside instead of helping Woody up, he athletically opens a hatch by himself as a means of impressing his crush. After the events of Toy Story 3, the two have seemingly started a legitimate relationship.
Physical appearance[]
Buzz Lightyear is a stocky electronic spaceman action figure. He has fair skin, blue eyes, and an outline of a swirl on his chin, which gives him a cleft chin. While in Toy Story 2 and the opening portion of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins, he is described as "fat", he is more likely simply muscular judging by the appearance of the human Buzz shown in Lightyear. Toy Buzz is 11.43 inches tall, with his helmet adding 0.37 inches, and human Buzz is 5'9 according to a promotion for Lightyear.
He wears a purple head cap and collar, and a clear plastic space helmet with purple buttons on both sides that open or close it. His green torso consists of a light blue sticker that has the words "SPACE RANGER" and the Star Command symbol, purple straps connected to it, three oval talk buttons - one blue, one green, and one red, a yellow name tag that says "LIGHTYEAR" above a red button that pops out purple plastic glider wings with red and white candy cane lining on the top of each, and green ends with red and green flashing lights. On his back, he has a white jetpack with a purple valve and green triangular accents and two black and yellow stickers - one says, "DANGER", and the other says "JET EXHAUST". His white arms have gray circular elbows and matching spheres on the end of his upper arms with black rings on it. His gloves have purple lines on his knuckles and fingertips and green squares on the back of each. His right arm has a red button on his upper arm with a yellow and black striped sticker that reads "LASER" and a red light on his right wrist. His left arm has a Space Ranger symbol sticker on his upper arm and a communicator sticker in his wrist communicator (the latter of which is later peeled off) and "MADE IN TAIWAN" engraved inside on his lid of the wrist communicator. A black bending with a thin green waist. His white spaceman pants have matching collars at the bottom and gray spheres behind his knees and hold his white shoes with green toe accents, purple soles, and black handwriting reading "ANDY" ("Bonnie" after Toy Story that Time Forgot) on his right shoe sole.
In Lightyear, his Space Ranger uniform lacks the word 'Space Ranger' and the "made in Taiwan" engraving. Buzz is also revealed to have short, slightly wavy light brown hair underneath his helmet, and his casual outfit consists of a dark blue polo shirt with a light blue 'Lightyear' name tag and a white crewneck undershirt, with matching jeans and belt, a chest badge consisting of two light grey and one orange triangles, and calf-length black boots. At the end of the film, he gains a space suit completely based off his signature space suit seen in the usual media.
In the original Toy Story, Buzz is a birthday present to Andy from his mother, Mrs. Davis. As Woody introduces Buzz to Andy's room and the other toys, the cowboy quickly learns that Buzz believes himself to be an actual "space ranger". This doesn't stop Buzz from becoming the most popular toy in the bedroom, as well as with Andy, who ditches his western aesthetics for that of astronauts and space. That, coupled with Buzz's delusions, sparks a bitter rivalry between Buzz and Woody.
One day, as Andy is about to leave for Pizza Planet, Woody tries to hide Buzz to prevent him from going but he instead, accidentally knocks him out the window. As planned, regardless, Woody is taken instead of Buzz, but only because Andy cannot find him. Buzz sneaks into the back of the family's car anyway. During a gas stop, Buzz confronts Woody for his actions, but their bickering results in the two being left behind. They catch a ride to Pizza Planet but are taken by a cruel child named Sid Phillips before they can reunite with Andy. At Sid's house, Buzz spots a commercial on television advertising the Buzz Lightyear action figure which reveals that the action figures are not made for flight, proving Woody's claim that he's only a toy and not a real space ranger. Buzz tries to prove his legitimacy by trying to fly out of the house through the upstairs window, but ends up falling down the stairs and breaking his arm instead. He falls into a state of depression, which inadvertently foils all of Woody's plans to get home.
Eventually, Sid plots to have Buzz blown up with a new firework he ordered. As Buzz accepts his fate, Woody confesses his insecurities, revealing he felt inadequate compared to a toy as amazing as Buzz. This gives Buzz his confidence back (after Woody says that he can't go back home, because Andy and his toys wouldn't love him anymore), but Sid takes him before the two can escape. Woody gathers the rest of Sid's toys to foil their owner's scheme, successfully saving Buzz. The two then try to return to Andy, but he and his family have already packed up and began to move to their new home. Woody and Buzz use the rocket to catch up, which eventually blasts the two into the air. Instead of plummeting to their doom, Buzz uses his wing feature to "fall with style" (gliding) safely into Mrs. Davis' car, reuniting the two with Andy.
In Toy Story 2, after Woody is stolen by Al McWhiggin, owner of Al's Toy Barn, Buzz plans a rescue mission consisting of himself, Rex, Mr. Potato Head, Slinky, and Hamm. At Al's Toy Barn, while separated from the group, Buzz meets another figure of himself. Unfortunately, he believes he is a real space ranger and seals Buzz away in a box to keep him from "going rogue". Buzz manages to escape and follows his friends (and the belt Buzz) to Al's apartment, where they reunite with Woody, but there is still confusion about who the real Buzz Lightyear is. Buzz proves his legitimacy by removing the helmet of the belt Buzz's and showing Andy's name on the bottom of his boot. He tries to convince Woody to return home before Al can sell him off to Tokyo, Japan.
Woody, however, reveals that he wants to stay, as he has grown fearful that Andy will abandon him upon growing up, and that his roundup gang will have to go back to storage if he doesn't go to the museum with them. This causes Buzz to use Woody's words from the first film to persuade him, saying that he is a toy, not a collector's item. He then reminds Woody how he once taught him that life is only worth living if he is being loved by a kid, and that he came all the way to rescue him because he believed him. But Woody still refuses to go back home, and he even coldly tells Buzz that he just wasted his time. Hurt by Woody's words and disappointed at his actions, Buzz and the others start to head home without Woody. Woody tells Buzz that going to the museum is his only chance, to which Buzz asks him if he wants to be watched from glass and never be loved by kids again. Fortunately, after listening to "You've Got a Friend in Me" from the TV, Woody has a change of heart. Unfortunately, the bitter Stinky Pete stops this, forcing Woody to stay with him and the rest of Al's Woody's Roundup toy set. Buzz and the other toys follow Al to the airport, where Woody is put into the luggage compartments. They manage to find him and fight off Stinky Pete, saving Woody as well as Bullseye and Jessie, who all return home with the rest of Andy's toys. During the epilogue, Buzz shows signs of affection towards Jessie, which she accepts.
Buzz Lightyear is the titular protagonist of the Toy Story spinoff, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command and is 2D animated. This show features Buzz's adventures as a space ranger, fighting the Evil Emperor Zurg. He is shown to command a small team, including Mira Nova, a Tangean princess with phasing powers, Booster, a former janitor from the planet Jo-Ad, and XR, a robot created by the Little Green Men.
The series was preceded by a direct-to-video film Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins, which showed the formation of the team. The film shows that Buzz became isolated after the death of his first partner, Warp Darkmatter. He meets his future teammates while investigating a crime involving missing LGMs.
In Toy Story 3, Andy has grown up and is preparing to leave for college. A few toys still remain, and all (except Woody) come to agree that the best thing for them to do is donate themselves. Under Buzz's leadership, they are taken to Sunnyside Daycare, home to toys that have been outgrown by their owners. The leader of the daycare, Lotso, promises the toys that they'll live a long and happy life with Sunnyside, solidifying their decision to stay. This angers Woody, who believes they should return home. The other toys reluctantly refuse, and a downhearted Buzz bids Woody farewell.
Later on, Buzz and the rest of Andy's toys were eager to play with the kids from the Caterpillar Room, though playtime wasn't as exciting as they hoped it would. They find out that the Caterpillar Room was filled with toddlers who do not know how to play with their toys properly. After an extremely rough and torturous day of playtime in the Caterpillar Room, Buzz sets off to request that he and his friends be moved to the Butterfly Room with older children. As he sneaks into the secret hideout of Lotso's gang inside the vending machine, Buzz finds out that they deliberately put him and Andy's toys in the Caterpillar Room. Before he could go back and warn his friends, Buzz is kidnapped by Lotso's gang and is taken to the library.
Buzz is later tied up to the "timeout chair" and angrily demands Lotso's minions to let him see Lotso. Just then, Lotso appears and unties him. Buzz explains to him that the children in the Caterpillar Room were too young to play with toys, and requests that he and his friends could transfer to the Butterfly Room. Lotso grants his request and recruits him as a member of his gang. Buzz was about to go get his friends, but Lotso refuses to allow them to go to the Butterfly Room, saying that they need to stay in the Caterpillar Room. Buzz argues that his friends don't belong there, and Lotso tells him that for the good of the community, he makes the newer, stronger toys to go through the hardships he and his gang can't bear anymore. While Buzz agrees with Lotso, he still refuses to leave his friends behind, because they are a family and must stay together. This causes Lotso to drop his kind facade and switch Buzz to "demo mode". In this state, Buzz's memories are blocked, and as a result, his space ranger delusions return. He is later ordered to imprison his friends for trying to escape the daycare. Buzz is then left in charge to guard them every night, though the toys (under Woody's guidance, who returned to save them) intimate a plan to return Buzz to normal and return to Andy.
Barbie forces Ken to tell her what Lotso did to Buzz and gets the manual from the Bookworm. Unfortunately, their tampering only switches Buzz to Spanish mode, making him a romantic and charismatic space ranger with no memories or the ability to speak English. Nevertheless, he is told that Woody and the others are his friends and joins them in escaping Sunnyside. While doing so, he develops romantic feelings for Jessie, though she is more baffled by his Spanish mode than taken. After confronting Lotso and his gang, the toys are dragged into a garbage truck due to Lotso dragging Woody into the garbage dump and hauled to the dump. Along the way, a television falls on Buzz and reverts him back to his normal self.
Inside the garbage factory, Buzz and the others narrowly escape termination and return to Andy's home the next morning. They wash themselves off and place themselves in a box meant for the attic, which Andy had always intended for them to go while he takes Woody to college. Instead, however, they are donated to a little girl named Bonnie, who loves and cares for them just as much as Andy did in the past.
Buzz plays a significant role in "Small Fry", where he and Rex are taken with Bonnie to Poultry Palace. There, Buzz is replaced by a Fun Meal Buzz Lightyear, leaving Buzz stranded at the restaurant. Unable to get through the front door, Buzz goes through the vents, only to fall into the basement, where he meets a support group for discarded Fun Meal Toys. Buzz is mistaken for an abandoned Fun Meal Toy is encouraged to join the group. Fortunately, he manages to escape and reunites with his friends before they make their attempt at rescue. Afterward, Buzz takes his diminutive counterpart to the restaurant, where the latter joins the support group with the former as his "sponsor".
Buzz is seen on a road trip with Bonnie to her grandmother's house, watching a scary movie with the other toys. When they are forced to stop off at the Sleep Well motel for the night after Woody warns Mr. Potato Head not to wander off because he might get lost, he leaves anyway and disappears and Buzz, Woody, and Jessie go to search for him and eventually come across his arm. A monster (later revealed to be Mr. Jones) is seen snatching up all the toys, and takes the arm, Buzz and Woody, leaving Jessie alone by herself. It is later revealed that Buzz, along with all the other toys, were taken to Ron's office, where he sells the toys on eBay. The toys are all later saved by Jessie when she opens the cabinet, and when they leave to check out, Bonnie and her mother notice the toys in the background and retrieve them. Buzz along with all the other toys continue their road trip.
Buzz first appears in the special when Bonnie takes some of her toys to Mason's house. He walks around the Battlesaur playsets. Later, when it is revealed that the Battlesaurs are not aware that they're toys, Buzz tries to explain to The Cleric what they are, but he is shrugged off. Later, Buzz along with Woody is seen being thrown into the Battlesaurs arena, where they are forced to fight. When they lose, the Cleric orders them to be destroyed. However, once the Cleric reveals he knows he's a toy, he realizes he can't let them reveal his secret to the other Battlesaurs.
Buzz and Woody are forced to a vent fan, where they would be destroyed by it, but the fan is turned off by Trixie before they can be destroyed. Buzz later returns with Bonnie to her house.
Buzz returns in Toy Story 4. In the flashback, he helps Woody and Bo with rescuing RC. Later, he asks Woody how he is and he is chosen as the towns mailman. He also is the first one to be excited about a road trip. He later meets Forky and mentions how he's a handful the next morning. Later he is told by Woody caring for him is harder than he thought. Later he gets told about an inner voice and notices Forky disappear. He goes with Woody and the gang on a road trip with Bonnie, where the group finds a carnival. He then realizes that Woody was right and decides to find them. He is strapped to a prize shelf at a carnival game, where he meets Ducky and Bunny. He escapes and Ducky and Bunny immediately capture him. Woody and Bo Peep assign Buzz, Ducky, and Bunny to help them rescue Forky.
At the antique store, Buzz gathers everyone to steal a key and find Woody and Bo Peep, who end up meeting Duke Caboom, who joins them and they run into Gabby Gabby and the Bensons and exit the antique store, but not before noticing Bonnie's backpack.
Woody begs everyone to get back in the store, but they leave, and Buzz returns to the RV. Inside the RV, Buzz urges Trixie to act as a hidden GPS and Bonnie's dad is creeped out as if the RV was a monster truck.
After arriving at the carnival, Buzz and the gang find Woody, Bo, Ducky, Bunny, and Duke Caboom. Woody is hesitant to return to Bonnie so Buzz tells him to stay with Bo and the rest of her friends. They watch Woody give his sheriff badge to Jessie, and everyone gives Woody a goodbye hug. As the RV is about to leave, Buzz and Woody utter the words "To infinity and beyond" for the last time. As the RV exits the RV park, Rex asks if Woody will be a lost toy and Buzz replies that he will not.
In a mid-credits scene, Buzz asks how first grade was and about present and explain. Soon he encounters Karen Beverly, a toy knife that Bonnie made in first grade, who Forky falls in love with.
Buzz Lightyear, the film character who inspired the toy line in-universe, debuted in the second Toy Story spinoff film, Lightyear, voiced by Chris Evans. In the film, Buzz is a space ranger who protects and explores the galaxy. But, on a trip to an uncharted planet, Buzz and the crew of the Turnip become stranded on that planet. Their only hope of getting off the planet is to rebuild their ship and begin experimenting hyperspeed propulsion systems powered by crystallic fusion. Buzz is chosen to be the test pilot. But during these flight tests, Buzz quickly learns upon his arrival back he experiences time dilation. Four years pass for him after a four minute flight.
The hyperspeed test flights eventually take him eighty-nine years into the future, where he meets a personal companion robot cat named Sox and Izzy Hawthorne, granddaughter of his best friend, Alisha, and her companions Mo Morrison and Darby Steel, who seek his help against an evil robot named Zurg, who leads an army of robot soldiers.
During Super Bowl XLII, which was played on February 3, 2008, a commercial played during the third quarter that showed Buzz and Woody watching the Big Game, as well as a promo for WALL-E, who was playing with a vacuum.
Buzz appears in the game as a meet-and-greet character outside his attraction in Tomorrowland. He gives the player a blaster as a gift and assigns many tasks, including helping him foil Zurg, as part of the player's Star Command training as a Space Ranger Cadet. He also serves as the player's guide in the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters mini-game.
Buzz appears in the Disney Infinity video game as a playable character. He comes with the Toy Story in Space Play Set along with Jessie. There is also a Crystal version and a Glow-in-the-Dark version of Buzz, with the latter, only being available on digital versions of the game.
Buzz appears in Kingdom Hearts III and was taken to an alternate version of his homeworld, known as the Toy Box, which had been corrupted by Young Xehanort. Left alone with only Woody, Rex, Hamm, Sarge and the Green Army Soldiers and the Squeeze Toy Aliens, Buzz struggles to uncover the mystery of where their friends have disappeared to. In this world, his laser is completely functional. They are given a clue by the arrival of Sora, Donald Duck, and Goofy, who offer their assistance. Though a desperate and devoted Woody welcomes them, Buzz is skeptical of these new strangers. Buzz would later be possessed by a Heartless and was forced to fight his friends. But he would be freed by Woody's friendship. After their adventure with Sora, Donald, and Goofy, Buzz apologizes to them for his attitude.
Buzz Lightyear appears as a playable Damage hero. To unlock him, you must obtain 80 Buzz chips. Buzz's white skill, "Laser Action" has him fly into the air and attack the entire enemy team with lasers. Buzz's friendship discs are with Emperor Zurg and Kevin Flynn.
In-game, Buzz seems to be a cross between Andy's Buzz and Ultra Buzz Lightyear, as he has the latter's utility belt but keeps his helmet down like the former and has the personality of the former.
Buzz is common in Disney Parks around the world as a meetable character. He is also featured in many parades. A face character of his Lightyear film incarnation would be introduced in 2022 for the film's debut.
Previously, if anyone in the park shouted "Andy's coming!", he, along with the other toys like Jessie, Woody, and the others, would fall down. This soon stopped as little children got scared when they fell, and the falling did damage to their outfits.
Buzz is also featured in a series of Tomorrowland attractions, each with a different name depending on what park they are in. In the rides, which all have the same plot, an audio-animatronic Buzz assigns the rider a mission to stop Emperor Zurg, by using a blaster to shoot at various targets.
Buzz also appears riding Mark Twain in Fantasmic!.
Buzz's fictional home planet is the planet of Morph.
Although his Lightyear incarnation comes from planet Earth, and there has been no mention of planet Morph in Lightyear.
Buzz Lightyear's name was inspired by Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second person to walk on the Moon after Neil Armstrong.
Buzz Lightyear was mentioned in Justin Bieber's song, "Boyfriend".
Buzz Lightyear's catchphrase, "To Infinity and Beyond", was referenced in Beyoncé's song "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)".
In all three films of fhe original Toy Story trilogy, there is one delusional Buzz Lightyear toy who believes he is a real Space Ranger.
In the first film, it was the current Buzz Lightyear who believed he was a real space ranger until he learned he was actually just a toy just like Woody had said.
In the second film, when the toys went to Al's Toy Barn, Buzz was attacked by another newer Buzz Lightyear after he tried to take newer Buzz's belt, and was placed in a display box while the other delusional Buzz went with the Woody search group after hearing Rex say he found the secret to beating Zurg (in a video game). It should be noted that this is technically the only instance in the film series thus far that Andy's Buzz himself does not become delusional about being a genuine space ranger.
In the third film, Lotso kidnapped Buzz and reset him to Demo mode where he lost his memories and reverted to his delusional Buzz state. When his friends attempted to reset him, they found they couldn't reset him by putting him back to normal mode and instead accidentally reset him to delusional Buzz in Spanish mode. He later regained his memories and his current persona when he was hit by a TV set while saving Jessie.
Buzz is similar to Bolt from the 2008film of the same name, as both believed to possess their TV show superpowers' powers, and yet, do not have them. It is not until later that both heroes realize (and admit) that they don't have any powers. Funnily enough, John Travolta (Bolt's voice actor) was considered to voice Buzz.
Buzz's name is different in some languages:
In the European French dub, he is named Buzz L'Éclair (Buzz Thunderbolt), though he keeps his original name in the Canadian French version.
Buzz quotes Captain James T. Kirk from Star Trek (1966) when he remarks, "There seems to be no sign of intelligent life anywhere..."
Buzz does a Vulcan salute from the Star Trek series when saying "Farewell" to Woody at the gas station, when leaving Andy's house to embark on his mission to rescue Woody, and when saying "Farewell" to the other Buzz who is playing catch with Emperor Zurg.
Buzz makes a cameo in Finding Nemo as one of the toys in the dentist's waiting room.
The Lightyear tire brand in the Cars franchise is a reference to Buzz Lightyear's name and is also a parody of the Goodyear tire brand.
Buzz appears during the end credits of Cars as a car, arguing with a car version of Woody. He is a Space Rover, and Woody is a station wagon.
All Piston Cup racers' tires in Cars (including Lightning McQueen's) are branded as "Lightyear", both a reference to Buzz Lightyear and a play on the name Goodyear (an actual tire manufacturer).
The original script for Toy Story 3 had Buzz and his entire toy line recalled back to Taiwan (where the Buzz Lightyear toys are made) due to a defect. Apparently, that defect could have explained why Buzz and his toy line believed themselves to be real space rangers. While this plot idea was ultimately scrapped, the final script did still include an explanation as to why the entire toyline had at the very least initial delusional beliefs to being the real Buzz Lightyear (as apparently they are pre-set to Demo Mode when first made).
Although, somehow, a Buzz Lightyear toy Andy Davis' grandmother mistakenly sent to him as a second action figure who switched places with Andy's his original Buzz in "The Return of Buzz Lightyear", published in issues 0-3 of Boom! Studios' Toy Story comic book, was aware that he was a toy and just wanted to be played with.
In only the North American release of Toy Story 2, Buzz gives out his speech with the US flag in the backdrop and the US national anthem, the "Star-Spangled Banner," playing in the background, similar to the way General Patton did in the film Patton (1970).
The colors on Buzz are the favorites of John Lasseter (lime green) and his wife, Nancy (purple).
Buzz's facial features are loosely based on John Lasseter himself.
Buzz was based on the G.I. Joe toys from the 1960s. However, he more closely resembles the classic Hasbro toy Rom the Space Knight. Like Buzz, Rom is a Space Ranger in a suit of powered armor who fights a race of hostile alien beings with a special laser.
Buzz, along with Woody, were at one point planned to appear as new summons in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, but this idea was scrapped.
Buzz was nominated for AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains. One of three animated heroes appears on the list, along with Belle and Peter Pan. Unfortunately, none of them made the list.
Buzz is 11.43 inches tall, and his helmet adds 0.37 inches.
The quality of Buzz's voice box deteriorated within the ten years between Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3, and is now on par with Woody's sound quality (ironic since Woody is from the 1950s).
Despite coming to terms with his identity as a toy, Buzz is apparently perplexed by the existence of his voice box. In Toy Story 4, after misinterpreting Woody's words, Buzz comes to believe his voice box is in fact his conscience, or "inner voice", and begins to listen to its recordings for advice when faced with conflict.
Buzz and Jessie's dance moves during the end credits of Toy Story 3 were choreographed by Tony Dovolani and Cheryl Burke of Dancing with the Stars.
Buzz has labels on his rear end. In Toy Story, he had a label that said "Disney," which was shown when he attempted to fly out of the window at Sid's house, and in Toy Story 2, he had a Disney/Pixar label that was shown as he (riding RC) knocked over Hamm (as Evil Dr. Porkchop) during one of Andy's play scenarios. This was also seen in Toy Story 3, just before he was picked up by a child at Sunnyside. The latter reappears in Kingdom Hearts III.
The characters that Buzz and Zurg are based on from whatever they're from in the Toy Story universe, are spoofs of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. They parody one of the last scenes in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, where Zurg claims he's Buzz's father just like Vader did to Luke, as the Zurg and Utility Belt Buzz in Toy Story 2 think they're the real versions of themselves and fight in a parody of the Luke/Vader fight in Star Wars.
When Toy Story was being made, Buzz wasn't going to be in the main plot. Tinny was going to be in his place. But John Lasseter decided a tin toy wouldn't be a good toy for a boy, so Tinny was scrapped and Lasseter decided to put in a military/space character that a boy would want so badly. When names came around, the original two were Lunar Larry and Tempis from Morph. In the documentary Beyond Infinity: Buzz and the Journey to Lightyear, an early test script had him named TECOR which was an acronym for Telegalactic Earthbound, Cyborg Of Rimboz with other suggested names being TOLAR or MICROZ.
Stinky Pete said that space rangers sold more than the 1950's cowboys, which makes it so Buzz's predecessors have been around since the early or late 1960s.
Additionally, Lightyear director Angus Maclane stated that Buzz's own spinoff itself in-verse was produced in the late 1970s or early 1980s, likely meaning Buzz himself is a cartoon character in-verse produced sometime then long before the events of the original film sometime around the 70s.[6][7][8]
According to Earlier scripts of Toy Story 2, Buzz himself would be gifted a Utility Belt from a newer release of him under the name "Ultra Buzz 2000" after defeating Zurg (who would end up as Ultra Buzz Lightyear in the final film).
It also seems that his Intergalactic Buzz Lightyear model released by Thinkaway in 1995 has inspired his Ultra Buzz Lightyear counterpart's earlier prototype designs where he had a unique chrome body, but ended up with an identical body style and paint job in the final version.
His left arm doesn’t look long enough to reach his laser button, so you can see the biceps sometimes sinking into his chest as an animation goof. He is also sometimes seen incorrectly activating his laser without pushing the button.
Due to advances in graphical technology by the time of Toy Story 4's production, Buzz's body is shown to be covered in minuscule scratches and dents in the present day, likely the result of many years of being played with in addition to frequent adventures. The "LIGHTYEAR" name tag on his chest, revealed to be a sticker, has also begun to peel off, the same thing occurs with the rest. you can also see that his plastic is slowly wearing out.
Buzz tends to mispronounce words. For example, he mispronounces the word "S'mores" as "Schmoes", and mispronounces Hawaii as "Hay-way-I". Woody corrects him both times.
Buzz is also shown to have weak leadership, making actions without giving orders whatsoever, hence the reason why Woody let Jessie lead his gang.
Despite his strength and size, Buzz can be easily be picked up by Rex, Jessie, and Bo throughout the series.
In Toy Story 3, Buzz's batteries on his back are branded with "Buy n Large", a company appears in WALL-E.
In The Shaggy Dog as Dave Douglas (played by Tim Allen) is racing to the court in his dog form, he dives off a bridge and yells out Buzz's catchphrase "To infinity and beyond!". Flik also says it in A Bug's Lifeouttakes as he grabs a piece of dandelion, he apologized soon afterward saying that he couldn't resist.
In The Santa Clause 2 as Scott Calvin is fighting Toy Santa (both of whom are played by Tim Allen), Toy Santa tells Scott "You are one sad strange little man."
In the Cars credits, the line (as well as Toy Story) was parodied when the Buzz car tells the Woody car "You are a sad strange little wagon."
Buzz's personality in Lightyear is very similar to both Captain America from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (aside from the fact that they're both played by Chris Evans) and Ellen Ripley from the Alien franchise.
He is referenced in the Runaways episode "Last Rites" when Karolina refers to her flying as "falling with style."
Even though his real life-releases have been upgraded in accuracy throughout the years, so far, like the other characters, no real-life figure of him is completely accurate to the films version. In fact, it would be impossible to produce a 100% accurate replica of the toy; In the films, Buzz's helmet is able to fully retract inside his body, but the real life toys only have the helmet dome only going halfway, the reason for that is because it would not be possible to fit the helmet shields inside his body as there is so much mechanism and electronics inside.[9] His jetpack also doesn't look like it can fit the mechanism for the Karate Chop Action with his large wings in the way, although the Disney Store release of him includes the feature, he has thinner wings to make way for the mechanism.
When Buzz's jetpack is opened up in the third film, there is no mechanism connected shown on the back for his wings and karate chop action, strangely enough (unless they are controlled by signals, but how they work, is unexplained).
It's also unknown why he actually has a demo mode when he is completely inaccessible without opening the package.
His original 1990s dolls have his wings popping from the sides but starting from the Toy Story and Beyond figures released by Hasbro in 2001, they finally swing out like in the films.
He didn't have a wrist communicator either on most original dolls from the 1990s-mid 2000s, but 2 special edition releases of the model (Intergalactic and Infinity Edition) from 1995 and 1996 have a flapping wrist communicator, alongside Mattel's similar Flight and Night control Buzz Lightyears from around the early 2000's. (His original 1995 model was however planned to have a wrist communicator, according to early plans written by the toy’s designers, but was scrapped, presumably to save time and money).[10]
In the first film, Buzz freezes when he is around Andy and Sid despite originally believing he was real and not a toy.
According to Lee Unkrich, co-director of Toy Story 2 & director of Toy Story 3, it is an involuntary instinct that Buzz has.[11]
His toy-mode facial expressions changed throughout the films. The first film has him with a serious expression, but the second film gives him a happier expression (though the former was reused for Ultra Buzz Lightyear, while the rest of the on-sale units had the same expression as Andy's Buzz did in the latter), probably to represent his softening character. In Toy story 3, it changed again and has been his latest ever since. Andy didn't pay attention to this, luckily enough.
There is one scene (likely an error) in the fourth film where Buzz has a closed-mouth-smile when he should have his correct facial expression of a grin. In the original film, there is also another error where he is briefly seen with a dead-on closed mouth expression when being captured by Sid in the claw machine, alongside the rest of his toy-line of the aisle seen in the commercial of Al's Toy Barn.
Additionally, the closed-mouth smile expression was identically used for Thinkaway's 2019 Karate Chop Buzz Lightyear.
Despite peeling off his wrist communicator sticker in the first movie and it being permanently absent from his wrist when seen in later movies, real-life Buzz Lightyear toys with an openable communicator (even those specifically based on Andy's Buzz) still include the sticker on his wrist.
In Lightyear, he doesn't get his toy counterpart's identical-looking signature space ranger suit until at the end of the film.
According to the concept arts for the original version of Toy Story 3, and Zurg's box when Buzz runs over it before waking him in Toy Story 2, his toy line seems to be produced by a company under the name Wacka Wacka Toys.
Although it appears Andy wanted to keep Buzz's original spaceship box in the first film, it is absent in Toy Story 2 and was never seen since (assuming it was trashed/thrown away, and possibly by himself, since Buzz finally knew he was a toy), it does however appear in a deleted opening scene where the aliens are seen using it as a hideout during playtime.
It was also meant to make a return in the earlier version of Toy Story 3, according to the story draft where Buzz would sit inside it and find inside there, a book of instructions (which made it's way in the final film) showing information how to get him fixed, saying: “For repairs, contact Wocka-Wocka Toy Company, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China”.[12]
It's unknown why Sunnyside Daycare had a Buzz Lightyear manual, unless they once had a Buzz Lightyear action figure themselves.
Buzz's present day in the Lightyear continuity is 89 years after he caused the ship to crash; for Buzz, it was only 19 days before his final 22-year jump. It hits him hard that any friends or family he had back home are now dead; leaving him with just Sox for emotional support.
In short, Buzz has a literal example of how an out of control ego will eventually leave someone alone.
In a dark sense of humor, Buzz could have had a nice life with his generation but his ego and sense of responsibility made him lose sight of things.
Adding onto the dark humor is that the correct hyperspace crystal formula would not exist until everyone from his era was dead; which made the effort pointless as the generations born on the planet had no reason to go to earth.
Just like Chris Evans character Steve Rogers, the Lightyear version of Buzz ends up in the future over sixty-two years later.
As a sci-fi trope of a "man out of time", it is also similar to famous space pulp hero Buck Rogers.
While most of the backround of Buzz's franchise is a mystery, director of Lightyear, Angus MacLane, claimed that that the toy version of Buzz was based on a Buzz Lightyear cartoon unseen to the audience, not the former itself. That being said, the director does note that he views the in-universe series as not having been produced yet, seemingly establishing Lightyear as having come out within the Toy Story timeline sometime before the events of the original film and, therefore, the previous Buzz spinoffs.[13] In addition, a deleted opening scene for the original Toy Story film shows Andy watching a TV show of the character under the name Buzz Lightyear: Defender of the Universe which show is never seen or mentioned anywhere in the final franchise.
Buzz is so far the only major human-based toy in Andy's collection to never officially become the leader of a band of toys like him, not counting the moment where he and some of Andy's toys had the mission to rescue Woody from being stolenby Al in Toy Story 2, as that was only a temporary act of leadership.